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Articles from the Heart of Satsang
Blog
Articles from the Heart of Satsang
Articles
Our minds are deeply conditioned by culture, family, and fear. Drawing on J. Krishnamurti’s insights, this article explores how awareness and self-inquiry can dissolve these ingrained patterns, freeing us from the false sense of ‘I’ and allowing conditioning to collapse naturally.
Root out ego directly, persevere endlessly despite obstacles, and realise you never left the summit of pure Being.
Bhagavan warns that mistaking emptiness for Jnana is a deadly trap, delaying true realization and making recovery a challenging path.
Realization is simply BEing as you ARE. Through persistent vichara, Grace shines forth until seeker and seeking both dissolve.
The Jnani’s silent presence works like a magnetic force, effortlessly turning ripe minds inward, leading to natural, thought-free peace.
Sabotage ends when we discard the ‘I’ that strives for Realisation, resting in pure Subjective Consciousness, free from identification.
Correct vichara is confirmed when Aham Sphurana shines forth spontaneously, unmistakably felt as direct experience of the Self.
Sex offers a taste of no-mind bliss, creating addiction as the ego craves this momentary experience of pure Being.
Only the complete, motiveless cessation of mental activity reveals the Self, showing the personal ‘I’ never truly existed.
Jnana is Bhakti: Pure, uncaused Love. Not practised, but revealed when thoughts dissolve, merging seeker and Love as One.
I am neither low nor high;
I am the worshipper and the worshipped.
I am free.
My song is the song of the river calling for the open seas;
Wandering, wandering;
I am Life.
Aham Sphurana is a beacon leading to Sahaja, but only when left undisturbed and ego-free, allowing spontaneous abidance.
A touching reunion of childhood friends highlights Bhagavan’s humility, refusal of special gifts, and unconditional compassion for all.
Mrs. Piggot recounts her farewell to Bhagavan, highlighting his quiet knowing, grace, and teaching to live as the Self.
Bhagavan guides a seeker beyond concepts, showing that diligent Self-inquiry removes doubt and ignorance, revealing the timeless Self.
Schopenhauer exposes life’s futility, but true renunciation and surrender arise from Grace, dissolving ego and revealing the Self.
Through a juggler’s display, Bhagavan emphasizes focusing inward, relinquishing belief and ego, to realize the Self beyond all spectacle.
The mind cannot kill itself. Seeking its source and ignoring objects dissolve it, revealing the Heart as stillness.
A vivid Ashram diary recounting the devoted, diverse lives of seekers, Bhagavan’s humour, Grace, and timeless wisdom in action.
Bhagavan reminds people to trust in God for its needs, resolving a misunderstanding with compassion and integrity.
Bhagavan spoke many languages, quoted texts with precision, and used interpreters as needed, making profound teaching universally accessible.
Bhagavan teaches that unselfish, motiveless Love is the essence of Jnana, with vichara being a path to reveal it.
Letters to Bhagavan, answered by a Brahmin scribe, carried the Master’s imprimatur, preserving his teaching and direct spiritual essence.
The 40th anniversary of Bhagavan’s union with Arunachala was celebrated with reverence, and grace, with him attending to every detail.
Bhagavan recounts how the monkey Shabarigirisan miraculously inspired a boy to return home, illustrating the mysterious grace of Arunachala.
Realisation is hindered by habits of thought; overcome by tracing thoughts to their source and resting in pure, timeless Being.
Through Grace, Love, and remembrance, illness was healed, fear dissolved, and an enduring devotion to Bhagavan and Hanuman remained.
Through Grace and surrender, one is lifted beyond samsara, like the monkey safe from the barking dog, untouched.
Mrs. Piggot recounts her serene visit with Sri Ramana Maharshi, describing the Sage’s profound silence, grace, and life-changing presence.
Through patient dialogue, Sri Ramana guides a seeker towards Self‑Realization, emphasizing grace, inquiry, inner silence, and simple vegetarianism.
Through a lifetime of hardships, rituals, and encounters with saints, the Aghori finds the grace of Ramana Maharshi, surrendering ego and discovering the peace of the Self.
A visitor finds peace and wisdom with Ramana Maharshi, experiences deep spiritual moments, and departs with profound gratitude and joy.
A devotee recounts a miraculous night with Ramana Maharshi and an Aghori, highlighting surrender, grace, and the path to Self-realisation.
A manager reports a slanderer’s misdeeds, but Bhagavan, serene and detached, laughs, accepting all as part of divine play.
The spiritual heart shines forth when effort and doing subside, thoughts dissolve, and natural stillness becomes the only state.
Self‑Realisation is not achieved by doing, effort, or thought, but by naturally subsiding into stillness beyond all mental activity.
Gajapathi Aiyyer’s Red Notebooks preserve Bhagavan’s profound teachings, offering timeless guidance for seekers, now published and accessible to all.
Bhagavan guides the Aghori’s death with serene grace, ensuring sacred release and merging the sadhu’s being with the Absolute.
Kaushika’s pride is humbled by a housewife and butcher, teaching that surrender and dutiful living lead to true realization.
Bhagavan compassionately scolds the manager for cruelty towards rats, teaching mercy and the value of every life, inspiring humility.
Bhagavan explains Jesus’ words as Advaitic teaching, guiding the seeker towards Self-Realization, surrender, and a still, inward-turned mind.
Ramana Maharshi explains that unconditional surrender means total letting go, making Self-Realization inevitable, beyond thoughts, conditions, or expectations.
Ramana Maharshi explains that renunciation burns tendencies, leading to effortless stillness and ultimate merging of the mind into the Heart.
Ramana Maharshi explains that God is real only while ego exists; the Jnani rests as the Self, acting spontaneously, free.
Ramana Maharshi explains that you are pure awareness, not the body. The world is a mental projection of the Self.
Ramana Maharshi guides a seeker troubled by sex, guilt, and sin to overcome ego through the ‘Who am I?’ inquiry.
I am nothing
I am everything
Everything I thought I was is just a thought
Nothing real, or grabbable.
I feel like I don’t exist
Im in oneness with everything I see
I walk and I am empty
I write but I don’t write
It’s a happening
No ones there doing anything
Free from my illusion
I feel safe
Recognise that all ideas of ego and identity are unreal, and by seeing this clearly, only the true Self remains.
The ego is like a goat caught in the tiger’s jaws of Grace, and no matter how long it struggles, its end — total annihilation — is certain.
Samadhi is the natural state where ego, thoughts, and effort dissolve, leaving only pure Being — the Self — revealed.
Realisation occurs when one surrenders completely, lets go of ego, embraces silence, and abides as the timeless, changeless Self.
Chadwick recounts a miracle New York visit, illustrating Grace beyond space, attachment, and the inward path to formlessness.
Ramana Maharshi teaches that regardless of destiny, ego’s illusions must be dissolved inwardly for true Self-Realization and freedom.
Ramana Maharshi explains that regardless of thoughts about the body, one must abide as the Self, allowing life to flow spontaneously.
The “I”-sense is not even remotely connected to anything physical. Being of the nature of consciousness, it emanates from the Self only.
Krishnamurti dissolves the Order of the Star, affirming truth is pathless and self‑discovered, beyond organizations, leaders, or authority.
Life does not question its own purpose. It has no questions to ask. It has no complaint to raise. It has no grudge to bear.
Ramana Maharshi explains that Guru’s Grace burns ego and mental habits, allowing total surrender and spontaneous Self-Realization to arise.
Through playful enquiry and timeless teaching, Ramana Maharshi guides a seeker from ego and fear to the Self’s silence.
Ramana Maharshi guides Chadwick and seekers to practice vichara, deep self-enquiry, until ego dissolves and the Self shines forth.
Meditation means sticking to one thought to the exclusion of every other. One particular thought keeps away all others.
Ramana Maharshi exposes the ego’s illusion, guiding seekers to drop belief in the personal self and rest as timeless Being.
B.: The importance of Summa Iru is, “Keep your mind idle or asleep in the Beingness of the Self.” As for the body, it has its own prarabdha (destiny that effects our life now) to attend to. You have no right of say over the body. You cannot decide whether the body should work or remain idle. What is bound to happen will happen. If the body is destined to remain without working, work cannot be obtained even if you hunt for it. If the body is destined to work you cannot alter such destiny, for the body will be forced to engage in it. So leave it to the Higher Power.
Summa Iru means resting quietly, free from thought and activity, allowing the mind to dissolve and reveal natural peace.
Awareness is not a commitment to something. Awareness is an observation, both outer and inner, in which direction has stopped.
You are aware, but the thing of which you are aware is not encouraged or nourished. Awareness is not concentration on something.
There are certain qualifications to be fulfilled before one goes to a teacher for freedom.
The first requirement, discernment, is discrimination between what is real and what is unreal. This distinction is essential. You must desire what is real and reject what is unreal. What is real can only be truth. Your own Self. There is nothing beyond this. All the rest is falsehood…
′′ I have reached the epitome of success in the business world. In other people’s eyes, my life is a success.
However, aside from work, I had little joy. Ultimately wealth is just one fact I’ve gotten used to…
“Concerning matter, we have been all wrong. What we have called matter is energy, whose vibration has been so lowered as to be perceptible to the senses. Matter is spirit reduced to point of visibility. There is no matter.”
When I was living with Papaji I still had very strong issues with my father, and sometimes I was looking to Papa to come and tell me I was a good boy. I guess he knew that.
It was a special day; it was Guru Purnima day when everybody gives a garland to the Guru. We all came in a long line, each holding a garland, and slowly we came closer to Papaji.
I’m constantly talking about self awareness, self awareness, self awareness. The reality of climate change is that unless we do really drastic things, it actually may be too late. Too late for what? We may have already destroyed our planet. Can you imagine that? We clever human beings may actually without realising it, step by step by step, may have pushed the effect of global warming, which is all human made, we may have pushed it to a point where it can’t be stopped, it can’t be re-stabilised. That’s what they’re discussing…
Hans was one of Papaji’s earliest western students. When they first met he lived in Germany and he would go to India, to Haridwar, for about three months at a time, often staying in a guesthouse with Papaji. They would share a room and go on long walks along the river, mostly in silence, which is where he asked Papaji this question….
Practiced diligently, meditation techniques purify the mind because they bring awareness to unholy patterns of thought and feeling. Unhealthy thoughts cannot survive the penetrating light of awareness. Nothing purifies like experience of the Self, which releases a flood of healing, cleansing, spiritual energy into the conscious and unconscious minds.
The most important part of the story of my time with Papaji actually came later. I realised I had been a long time in the dilemma of appearing to be ‘in’ and ‘out’ of Self. Papaji would often talk about the memory of spiritual experiences being just another memory, the past.
What is enlightenment?
‘I am bound’ is a concept that everyone has clung to [but] he cannot show any chains or fetters by which he is bound. This is his concept. He must have been told by someone, or read some books, or heard from his parents or priests or…
We all know it’s beautiful when the heart opens and the tears flow, and the love is gushing out. What more could we want at that time? Because when we are in that type of love – which is devotion itself – there’s almost no mind. The mind just disappears in that love and in that devotion, but as one teacher said to me, “And in that place no one wants to enquire.”
Devageet – Osho’s personal dentist recently left his body. He wrote this poem after having been diagnosed with cancer. He was a giant made of gold who left this world a better place through the richness of his generous sharing… I bow down in gratitude to his roaring sprit..
There was a diamond thief who thought to steal only the most exquisite of gems. This thief would hang around the diamond district to see who was purchasing a gem, so that later he could pick their pocket. One day he saw a well-known diamond merchant purchase the jewel he had been waiting for all his life…
“Wow, this silence and bliss is so beautiful.” He gets up and says, “I’m going downstairs to make some yoghurt.” So, I follow Him down, and I said, “Why did you do that?” He said, “Where’s your silence now?” I said, “Well, it’s still here.” He said, “This is why I did it.”
As I sat there looking at him doing what I could to just be and when the five seconds were over he asked me what happened. I said well I’m just sitting here. He said, no, no, I told you no thinking. I am sitting here thinking. So let’s do it again. So we did it again. At that point I…
I would say that that seeing of our nature is like the first step in an ongoing process that reveals everything that’s been suppressed or been jumped over, and in that process it’s really a fire, but ultimately the fire is not for any person, it’s actually for the benefit of all beings.
Then one day, this was the big change, I’ll never forget it, never to this day.
He sat up cross-legged on His bed and I was sitting on the floor in the hospital.
He drew a line and He said, “Look.” He said it like, “Look (gruffly), this is a line. On this side of the line is everything you’ve ever known, everything…
I went into stillness immediately. But I kept going back to my mind and believing my mind and feeling caught up. Mind is a tricky thing, it can make you believe it, even when it’s a lie, it can make you believe it’s not a lie.
That’s why I say forget everything the mind tells you, because it’s a deceitful thing the mind…
There are a couple of things that Papaji says: ‘Having the longing for enlightenment is enlightenment.’ I think that is a very beautiful statement; it’s both profound and compelling at the same time. One other thing: ‘A little bit is enough. There is no more, a glimpse is enough.’
It’s simple, even if you don’t think you’re free, or even if you’re not completely free, have the conviction that you are free. Even if you know it intellectually that you’re free, hold on to that. It may be just intellectual, but it will help you because it won’t let your mind disturb you so much.
A person like Ramana Maharshi or a person like Eckhart Tolle, who I know quite well, who realised, and that’s it, end of doubts, end of everything, end of the vasanas, the tendencies, is very, very rare. It’s a very, very rare occurrence.
I urge all of you, to listen to the pull. To listen to your heart, to listen to your call, especially in this business that we’re involved with, or this what we’re involved with…
SUDDENLY THE SOUND OF
SINGING BIRDS AT SUNRISE
PENETRATES MY BEING
AWARENESS
OF A SUBTLE POWER
THE EARLY MORNING SUN…
I asked the Master how much effort you have to make if you want to be free. Papaji whispered, he said, ‘You don’t have to make any effort to be free.’ The moment I heard those words, a vision appeared in my mind’s eye. I saw water flowing down the side of a mountain…
Alienation from nature and the loss of the experience of being part of the living creation is the greatest tragedy of our materalistic era. It is the causative reason for ecological devastation and climate change. Therefore I attribute absolute highest importance to consciousness change.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but when you’re really, really Quiet, there’s so much Beauty! Everything is beautiful! It was one of those days: today, the ocean was beautiful, the houses were beautiful, the people were beautiful, the weather was beautiful, the paintings were beautiful, the lunch was great. It was just like a flow through Beauty, the whole day.
Unfortunately we have been filled up in our education by all kinds of ideas. If we want to be really happy, then we have to be special, and if we do these special things, that will make us especially happy. So we aspire to having a big house or car or special clothes, because this is supposed to make us happy. This way of desire is actually the game of society, because societies are now-a-days based on this idea of desire.
But this game of desire simply doesn’t work, because it only can give you a feeling of satisfaction for a short moment.
The only true way to step out of all the stories and all the nonsense is to really see with great clarity that this ‘me’ that we are so fond of referring everything to, simply doesn’t exist. Once you see it doesn’t exist then the whole thing falls away. Everything just falls away and you’re left with what is.
Often there is a tremendous release of energy.
The first thing I would say is that there are not any enlightened people. This word enlightenment is a wrong word. It is like sex or love or god. It is like some idea far away in the future. Maybe it has a value because it can bring people to find themselves, just as the peak of Mount Everest brings people to climb mountains.
Some argue that because the Self is already realized, only the unenlightened mind-ego entity can get enlightened. Others say that since only the Self exists, there is no ego to get enlightened. These apparently opposing views suggest that ignorance both exists and does not exist.
Love is our Being, Being is existence, so love is existence. Your essential state is love. What distorts that is that we look outside for love not realising that the love we experience outside is a reflection of the love we have for our deepest self.
It’s quite clear that for almost everybody this issue of intimacy with another human being is a strong structure, a strong issue. In the eastern traditions of Buddhism and Hinduism there is a deep understanding that if you seriously want to become a spiritual seeker you become celibate and stay alone.
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there.
And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be,because death is very likely the single best invention of life.
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